Is it possible to simulate bump maps using lighting?
Well here's the funny thing,
Bump mapping already creates the illusion of detail using lighting tricks. No actual detail is created.
For example:

In this quick little render, I only used a bump map.
As you can see, no real detail is created but blender is using lighting tricks to give an illusion of depth by casting shadows and bouncing extra light. So I think bump mapping already does what you asked for.
BLEND FILE: https://pasteall.org/blend/e18270574ea0464cb27904593c648695